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Plans Unveiled for Tower Works – Curb Your Enthusiasm?

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Yorkshire Forward have recently unveiled plans (again) for the regeneration of the tiny, but very well positioned Tower Works site in Leeds.  A quick search of the YF site shows that this has been rumbling on since the land was acquired in 2006.

The usual PR froth is being spewed out – ‘mixed use development’,  ‘Italianate Towers’, ‘Giotto’, ‘supporting creative and digital industries’, ‘Leeds as a major business centre’….’vibrant community’ etc.  But haven’t we been fed this line somewhere before?

Original plans for some 145 000 square feet of office space have been reduced to 18000 square feet in the ‘first phase’.  But this will put still more pressure on Holbeck Urban Village where, at a casual glance, occupancy (outside of The Round Foundry) is poor.

The re-development of Tower Works will be financed by a mix of public and private finance. The public element coming from Yorkshire Forward seems to be just shy of £20 million.  The private investment will mean that only those aspects of the development that are most likely to provide a good return are likely to happen quickly.  With Holbeck Estates going into administration it is not yet at all clear how any developer will make their returns.

Perhaps it is a time for a change of tack?

Currently we invest enormous sums of public cash in developers to sweeten deals sufficiently to enable them to provide an infrastructure that will attract the creative classes to Leeds.  Tower Works, the new southern entrance to the station, Neville St refurbishment, Latitude, Wellington St, I could go on.  Once we have got things just right, and our 15 year plans have come to fruition, then surely things will come good?  Well, if it all works out well, perhaps, yes.  Those with the skills and the finance to use the infrastructure might be able to accrue more wealth.   And, if you still believe in ‘trickle down’ (probably Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairy as well), then the economic benefits will also flow out to the poorer communities enabling the ‘gap’ to be maintained rather than widened.  Perhaps the enterprise fairytale will have a happy ending this time. Perhaps…if we combine best case scenario with that holy grail of trickle down.  Now I am all for optimism, confidence and positive thinking – but the realist in me says ‘Perhaps not’.

Worst case scenario?  Developers, architects, public servants and planners get paid their fees and salaries and we get left with yet more low occupancy real estate.  And I am not talking schools and GP practices.  I am talking office space.  Leeds is already awash with infrastructure – yet we intend to create more.

What would happen if we used that £20m to provide a serious programme of enterprise outreach education?  (And before anyone says isn’t that what LEGI did, no they did not.  They too put the money primarily into infrastructure at Shine and  Hillside offering expensive premium office space).

What would happen if we provided high quality, sustained, long term and person centred community development work?

What if we taught local people the importance of bootstrapping, skill development and building social networks that pursued sustainable communities?

What if we helped them to create their own futures rather than enveloping them in the vision of the anointed?

Would our faith in the creativity, hard work and application of the people of Leeds be rewarded?

Of course.

It is NOT all about the economy, stupid

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There is an assumption behind most economic development organisations that if we can just get the economy right, just about everything else will fall into place. There is a belief that the economy is in some way foundational.

It is not.

Economies are the products of communities.  Products of individuals and associations.  Products of mutual exchange and trade.  Products of aspiration, skill and education.

Community is not a by product of economy.  Economy is a by product of community. We are putting the cart well and truly before the horse.

If we want a better, more sustainable economy then let’s invest in better and more sustainable communities. And if we want better communities then let’s work with the people that live in them in ways that are constructive, inclusive, engaging, challenging and creative. Let’s shift to a different narrative for ‘development’.  Let’s throw less money at the architects, developers, placemakers and investors.

Instead, let’s invest in high quality, ‘street based’ education and development.  Real community coaches trained to offer a confidential, person centred, responsive but challenging service.  Let’s use it to unlock and develop the confidence, talent, passion and skill that so often lies dormant or unrecognised.

We don’t do this by engaging ‘the few’ community ‘champions in setting up Development Trusts, Enterprise Centres or in tidying up shabby spaces.

We do it through radical, respectful and skilled outreach work.  Models for this are few and far between – but they do exist.  Simon on the Streets is the best example I know of in Leeds.

Perhaps you know others?

Thoughts and suggestions welcome!

Person Centred and Responsive Service Delivery

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I am thinking about developing a workshop to explore what is involved in developing a person centred and responsive mechanism for high quality service delivery.  Relevant to public, private and third sector organisations, this workshop will help to understand the challenges of adopting person centred and responsive methodologies and the very real benefits that come from meeting them head on.

Drawing on both theory and practice I would see the session covering:

  • Why person centred – what does it mean – how does it help?
  • Responsive versus strategic service delivery
  • At the point of engagement – what do we do at the front line?
  • Managing boundaries, outcomes and expectations
  • Building responsive networks
  • Making the financial dynamics work – if we don’t guarantee outputs who will pay?
  • Person centred, responsive and local
  • Moving in the right direction – next steps

Would you be interested?  What else would you like to see covered?

Feedback and comments welcome!

The Single Biggest Problem Facing the Third Sector?

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I think the biggest challenge to the 3rd sector is the prevalence of many to look to the procurement requirements and proclivities of the state rather than looking long and hard at the community, its wants and needs.

A preoccupation with what Government wants to buy over and above developing enterprising services that local communities really want and need will gradually erode what credibility and goodwill the sector retains.

Social enterprises and community development organisations need to face those they purport to serve. Too many good development workers and voluntary organisations have already been ‘bought off’ to deliver the states objectives around obesity, entrepreneurship, smoking cessation, worklessness and so on.

Not only does this make a mockery of community development, it also wrecks the chance of doing good person centred development work in the forseeable future.

The problem is not just the pursuit of government funding and a ‘race to the bottom’ of the ladder for costs of service delivery – but a real and lasting breach of trust with those whom we purport to serve which may take us years to recover.

Those that wish to represent the sector need to make a much better fist of negotiating its relationship with the state. Otherwise the dead hand of the bureacrat will kill the goose that lays the golden egg.

Harvey Nichols as a Force for Good?

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This morning, the very wonderful, Simon on the Streets had bit of a shindig with its supporters in the Fourth Floor Cafe of Harvey Nichols in Leeds.

Now Simon on the Streets is a magical organisation for many reasons.  Not only does it do great work with homeless people in Leeds (with bold plans to expand) but it does it with a philosophy of person centredness and respect for service users that is quite beautiful to see.

But this post is not about Simon on The Streets.

It is about Harvey Nichols.  And me!

I am firmly in the camp that says the economic and social development of Leeds has been far too heavily dependent on the retail and financial sectors.  So when Harvey Nicks came to town I was not one of the first through the door.  I saw it as yet another step in the grand brand invasion of the city I call home.

In fact as I queued to get in I commented to a friend that I had NEVER set foot in Harvey Nicks before, and that I was gobsmacked that it was my relationship with Simon on  the Streets that had finally lured me in.  I was certainly a ‘fish out of water’.  A one man boycott.

The event itself was wonderfully managed.  Simon on the Streets message as ever gave me goosebumps and bought  a tear to my eye.  But I noticed something else.  The quality of the service in the cafe bar was also a thing of beauty.  They must have served 60 or so hot breakfasts while speeches were being made with barely any intrusion.  No dropped cutlery.  No clanking of china.  Skilled and efficient waiting staff who knew their work.  Not always the case!

After the event the General Manager of Harvey Nichols, Brian Handley introduced himself to me.  He had heard me mention that I had never been in before and asked me why.  So I told him about my one man, informal boycott of ‘up market cathedrals of consumption’!

I then listened to Brian tell me about many pieces of work that Harvey Nicks do to raise money for social enterprise in the city, but perhaps more importantly how they use their purchasing power to support Yorkshire based business, their venues to provide showcases for Leeds based charities and artists and their partnership work with 11 mills still making cloth in Yorkshire to help keep them in business.  He told me about the local sourcing of produce in the Cafe Bar.  And he told me about the pride and effort that they put into training retail as almost a craft occupation.  He also told me that Prada are a real supporter of Yorkshire textiles.  Some of my prejudices were well and truly put to the test, and exposed for what they were – prejudices.

Now I doubt that everything is the Harvey Nicks garden is rosy.  I expect there are chinks, perhaps vast gaping holes, in their CSR agenda.  There must be issues around carbon footprints and food miles.  I am sure there will be people that will tell me about their bad practices.  But here was a man who clearly was proud that he and his employer were doing what they could to make sure that not only does Harvey Nicks provide a great return to shareholders and a wonderful retail experience to customers, but doing it in  away that creates as much good as possible and does as little harm as practicable.

I have written before about my cynicism about the self congratulatory nature of some of the social enterprise sector and their demonisation of  ‘for profits’, about how there are simply good businesses, bad businesses and a whole lot that fit somewhere in the middle.  ‘For profit’ does not mean ‘bad’.  And being a social enterprise is by no means a guarantee of ‘goodness’.

Here was a partnership working for both Simon on the Street and Harvey Nichols.  And here was a ‘for profit’ ‘cathedral of consumption’ doing great work to keep local businesses going and support the third sector.

It was a useful reminder of my own message that there are just good businesses and bad businesses and sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference.

And to beware my own prejudices!